Rhetorics of Power and Dissent: Michelangelo and a 1000 Medici Manuscripts

Abstract

Theorizing the Laurentian Library’s vestibule ornamentation, particularly the ornamental antithesis that displaces and perplexes, as early modern architectural rhetoric, this essay examines how architectural design constructed societal norms pertaining to articulation and eloquence, influence, and power. I frame the Laurentian Library and its Medici manuscript collection as apparatuses that legitimized perceptions of the Medici’s nobility and overbearing political identity. To get to the library as an instrument of power, I trace the route of the Medici manuscripts –that instigated the design and construction of the Laurentian Library– and conclude by reflecting on the vestibule’s rhetorical devices with a focus on Michelangelo’s "brackets." Following the books from Florence to Rome and back to Florence, the study also points to the relations between the San Marco and San Lorenzo monasteries, the Florentine government, and the Medici, who sought to position and vindicate their sovereignty over Florence via God.